Shield of Protection, April 10

He came unto his own, and his own received him not. John 1:11.TDG 109.1

He who purchased the human family with His own blood, charges as done to Himself any insult offered to a child of His. His law is to extend the shield of divine protection over every soul who puts his trust in Him.TDG 109.2

Christ's denunciations, the woes that He pronounced, were followed by exclamations of the deepest sorrows....TDG 109.3

Just before His crucifixion, He beheld the city [of Jerusalem], and wept over it, saying, “If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace!” (Luke 19:42). Then He paused. They had come to the crest of Olivet, and the disciples, catching sight of Jerusalem, were about to burst forth unto exclamations of praise; but they saw that their Teacher, in the place of being joyful, was in an agony of tears.TDG 109.4

Christ was approaching the end of His mission, and He knew that when that time should come, Jerusalem's day of probation would have ended. But He was reluctant to pronounce the words of doom. For three years He had come, seeking fruit and finding none. During these years one object was ever upon His soul—to present before His thankless, disobedient people the solemn warnings and gracious invitations of heaven. He greatly desired that the people should receive His words.TDG 109.5

How graciously He had invited them. How anxiously He had labored to awaken in their hearts the comprehension that He was the only hope of Israel, the promised Messiah.... His lifework was to convince His disobedient people that He was their only hope. He carried them on His heart. He did all that He could do to save them. But at the end of His work in this world He was forced to say in an agony of tears, “Ye would not come unto Me that ye might have life.”TDG 109.6

The cloud of divine wrath was gathering over Jerusalem. Christ saw the city beleaguered. He saw it lost. In a voice full of tears he exclaimed, “If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes” (verse 42).TDG 109.7

I present this feeble representation ... to those who are today going over the same ground, refusing the messages of the grace of God.—Letter 317a, April 10, 1905, to “Dear Brethren in the Ministry and the Medical Missionary Work.”TDG 109.8